Showing posts with label Office of Strategic Services. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Office of Strategic Services. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Sunday, March 26, 1944. Unaddressed lynching and The Road To Victory.

Black minister and farmer, Rev. Isaac Simmons, was lynched in Amite County, Mississippi by a party of six seeking to take his land, which they in fact did. They were not convicted for their crimes, and his terrorized family fled the area.

Winston Churchill delivered his Road To Victory speech:

I HOPE you will not imagine that I am going to try co make some extraordinary pronouncement tonight and tell you exactly how all the problems of mankind in the war and in peace are going to be solved.

I only thought you would like me to have a short talk with you about how we are getting on and to thank you for all the kindness with which you have treated me in spite of my many shortcomings.

It is a year almost to the day since I spoke to you on a broadcast here at home. This has been a time of disappointments as well as successes, but there is no doubt that the good news has far outweighed the bad, and that the progress of the United Nations toward their goal has been solid, continual and growing quicker.

The long and terrible march which the rescuing powers are making is being accomplished stage by stage, and we can now say not only with hope but with reason that we shall reach the end of our journey in good order, and that tragedy which threatened the whole world and might have put out all its lights and left our children and descendants in darkness and bondage perhaps for centuries—that tragedy will not come to pass.

He is a rash man who tries to prophesy when or how or under what conditions victory will come.

But come it will—that at least is sure.

It is also certain that unity of aims and actions and singleness of purpose among us all—Britons at home and our Allies abroad—will make it come sooner.

A year ago the Eighth Army which had marched 1,500 miles across the desert from Alamein was in battle for the Mareth Line and the First British Army and American Army were beating their way forward to Tunisia. We were all confident of victory but we did not know that in less than two months the enemy would be driven with heavy slaughter from the African continent, leaving at one stroke 335,000prisoners and dead in our hands.

Since then the successful campaign in Sicily brought about the fall of Mussolini and the heartfelt repudiation by the Italian people of the Fascist creed.

Mussolini indeed escaped to eat the bread of affliction at Hitler's table, to shoot his son-in-law and help the Germans wreak vengeance among the Italian masses whom he had professed to love and over whom he had ruled for more than twenty years.

This fate and judgment more terrible than death has overtaken the vainglorious dictator who stabbed France in the back and thought his crime had gained him an empire of the Mediterranean.

The conquest of Sicily and Naples brought in their train the surrender of Sardinia and the liberation of Corsica, islands which had been expected to require for themselves a serious expedition and a hard campaign.

We now hold one-third of the mainland of Italy. Our progress has not been as rapid or decisive as we had hoped. I do not doubt we shall be victors both at the Anzio bridgehead and on the main front to the southward and that Rome will be rescued.

Meanwhile, we have swept out of the struggle sixty-six Italian divisions and we are holding in Italy, for most part in close action, nearly twenty-five divisions and a noteworthy part of the German Air Force, all of whom can bleed and burn in the land of their former ally while other and even more important events which might require their presence are impending elsewhere.

We have been disappointed in the Aegean Sea and its many islands which we have not yet succeeded in dominating.

But these setbacks in the eastern Mediterranean are offset, and more than offset, by the panic and frenzy which prevailin Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, by the continued activities of Greek guerrillas and above all by the heroic struggle of the Partisans of Yugoslavia under the leadership of Marshal Tito.

In the Near and Middle East we have certainly traveled a long way forward from those autumn days in 1940 when we stood all alone—when Mussolini was invading Egypt, when we were driven out of British Somaliland, when all Ethiopia was in Italian chains and we wondered whether we could defend the Suez Canal, the Nile Valley, the Sudan and British East Africa.

There is much still to be done in the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean. But here again I do not doubt the task will be finished in a workmanlike manner.

We who dwell in the British Isles must celebrate with joy and thankfulness our deliverance from the mortal U-boat peril—which deliverance lighted the year which has ended.

When I look back upon the fifty-five months of this hard and obstinate war, which makes ever more exacting demands upon our life-springs of energy and contrivance, I still rate highest among the dangers we have overcome the U-boat attacks upon our shipping, without which we cannot live or even receive the help which our dominions and our grand and generous American ally have sent us.

But there are other deliverances which we should never forget. There was the sea mining peril which loomed so large in 1939 and which has been mastered by superior science, ingenuity and by the often-forgotten but almost-unsurpassed devotion to duty of our minesweepers' crews and the thousand ships they work and man that we may eat and live and thus fight for the good cause.

We have been delivered from the horrors of invasion at a time when we were almost unarmed. We have endured without swerving or failing the utmost fury Hitler could cast upon us from the air, and now the tables are turned and those who sought to destroy their enemies by the most fearful form of warfare are themselves reeling and writhing under the prodigious blows of British and American air power.

We had ourselves a large air force in this island this time last year. We have a larger one today, but besides all that our American Allies have now definitely overtaken and outnumbered us in the mighty air force they have established here. The combination in true brotherhood of these two air forces-either of which is nearly as large in numbers and in power much greater than the whole air force of Germany-aided as it will be by another Allied air force in Italy almost as large which is now established there, these together will produce results in these coming months which I shall not attempt to measure in advance but which will certainly be of enormous advantage to the cause of the Allies.

Not only have the British and Americans this great preponderance in numbers which enables them to send out a thousand bombers as often as the enemy is able to send a hundred against us, but also by sharing all our secrets with one another we have won leadership in the marvels of radar, both for attack and defense.

Surveying these famous and massive events on land, sea and air in the war waged by the two western Allies—Britain and the United States—against Hitlerism, we are entitled, nay bound, to be encouraged and be thankful and resolve to do better than we ever have done before.

It would be quite natural if our Soviet friends and allies did not appreciate the complications and difficulties which attend all sea crossings—amphibious is the word—operations on a large scale. They are the people of great land spaces and when foes threaten the sacred soil, Russia, it is by land that they march out to meet and attack them.

Our tasks are difficult and different, but the British and American peoples are filled with genuine admiration for the military triumphs of the Russian Army.

I have paid repeated tributes to their splendid deeds, and now I must tell you that the advance of their armies from Stalingrad to the Dniester River, with vanguards reaching out toward the Prut—a distance of 900 miles—accomplished in a single year constitutes the greatest cause of Hitler's undoing.

Since I spoke to you last, not only have the Hun invaders been driven from the land they have ravaged but the guts of the German Army have been largely torn out by Russian valor and generalship.

The peoples of all the Russias have been fortunate in rinding in their supreme ordeal of agony a warrior leader, Marshal Stalin, whose authority enables him to combine and control the movements of armies numbered by many millions upon a front of nearly 2,000 miles and to impart a unity and concert to the war direction in the east which has been very good for Soviet Russia and very good for all her allies.

When a moment ago I spoke of the improvements for the Allied cause which are taking place in Hungary and in the satellites in the Balkans, I was reserving the acknowledgment that the victorious advance of the Soviet Army has been the main cause of Hitler's approaching downfall in those regions.

I have now dwelt with the progress of the war against Hitler Germany. But I must also speak of the other gigantic war which is proceeding against the equally barbarous and brutal Japanese. This war is waged in vast preponderance by the fleets, air forces and armies of the United States. We have accepted their leadership in the Pacific Ocean just as they accepted our leadership in the Indian theatre.

We are proud of the contributions made by Australia and New Zealand against Japan. The debt which the British and the Commonwealth of Nations owe to the United States for the fact that their operations against the Japanese shielded Australia and New Zealand from Japanese aggression and from mortal peril during the period when the mother country was at full stretch in the struggle against Germany and Italy. That debt is one which will never be forgotten in any land where the Union Jack is flown.

Remarkable success has attended the work of the American Navy and American, Australian and New Zealand troops. The progress in New Guinea is constant American victories in the Pacific and, in particular their latest conquest and liberation of the Marshall Islands, constitute a superb example of a combination naval, air and military force.

It is possible that the war in the Pacific may progress more rapidly than was formerly thought possible. The Japanese are showing signs of great weakness. Attrition of their shipping, especially their oil tankers, and their air forces on all of which President Roosevelt dwelt with sure foresight a year ago, has become not merely evident but obvious. The Japanese have not felt strong enough to risk .their fleets, in general engagements for the sake of their outer defense lines. In this they have been prudent, considering the immense expansion of United States naval power since the Japanese' treacherous assault at Pearl Harbor.

What fools the Japanese ruling caste were to bringagainst themselves the might and latent war energy of the great Republic all for the sake of carrying out a base and squalid ambuscade.

The British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations have pledged themselves to right side by side with the United States against Japan no matter what it costs or how long it lasts.

Actually we have suffered from Japanese injuries even greater than those which have roused the armed wrath of the American Union. In our theatre of war, in Burma and the Bay of Bengal, we shall strive our utmost to aid the Americans in their contacts with China and to add to our own.

The more we can fight and engage the Japanese and especially wear down their air power the greater the diversion we make from the Pacific theatre and the more help we give to the operations of the United States.

In Burma those plans which were prepared last August at Quebec are now being put into practice. Young men are at the helm. Admiral Mountbatten infused the spirit of energy and confidence into the heavy forces gathered to recover Burma and by that means to defend the frontiers of India and reopen the road to China.

Our airborne operations enable us to attack the Japanese rear. They, for their part, have got behind our front by infiltration at various places and fierce fighting is going on at many points. It is too soon to proclaim the results in this vast area of mountain and jungle, but in nearly every combat we are able to count three or four times more Japanese dead —and that is what matters—than we have ourselves suffered in killed, wounded and missing.

Individual fighting superiority in the jungle has definitely passed to the British and Indian soldiers as compared with the Japanese. Farther to the north an American column of experienced jungle fighters and a considerable Chinese army under General Stilwell of the United States service are progressing with equal mastery.

Later on I shall make to you or Parliament a further report on all this hard fighting which, mind you, is not by any means decided yet.

Meanwhile, we have placed a powerful battle fleet under Admiral Somerville in Indian waters in order to face the main part of the Japanese fleet should it turn westward after having declined battle against the Americans.

When I spoke a year ago I drew attention to the possibility that there would be a prolonged interval between the collapse of Hitler and the downfall of Japan. I still think there will be an interval, but I do not consider it will be as long an interval as I thought a year ago. But be it long or be it short, we shall go through with our American brothers with our utmost strength to the very end.

I have now tried to carry you, as if in Mosquito aircraft, on a reconnoitering duty over the world-wide expanse of this sterile and ferocious war. And I trust you have gained not only some glimpse of the particular scenes, but also have the feeling of the relative size and urgency of the various things that are going on. There are, as you see, quite a lot of things going on.

Still, I remember when I spoke to you on March 21 of last year I gave up the main part of what I said to what we were planning to do to make our island a better place for all its people after the war was over, whenever that should be. I told you there would have to be a general election and a new House of Commons, and, if I was still thought fit to be of any further use, I should put to the country a four-year plan to cover the transition period between war and peace and bring the soldiers, sailors and airmen back to a land where there would be food, work and homes for all.

I dwelt on how wrong it would be to make promises which could not be fulfilled and for one set of politicians to try to outbid another in visionary scheming and dreaming. But I mentioned five or six large fields in which practical action would have to be taken.

Let me remind you of them—a reform on a great scale of the education of the people, a nation-wide uplifting of their physical health. I spoke of the encouragement of agriculture and food production and of vigorous revival of healthy village life. I dwelt upon the importance of a national compulsory insurance scheme for all classes, for all purposes from the cradle to the grave, and of the sound scheme of demobilization which would not delay the rebuilding of industry and not seem unfair to the fighting men. I also spoke about the maintenance of full employment and about the rebuilding of our cities and the housing of the people, and I made a few tentative suggestions about the economic and financial policy and what one might call the importance of making both ends meet.

All this was to happen after the war was over. No promises were to be made beforehand but every preparation that was possible without impeding war effort, including legislative preparation, was to be set on foot.

Now, my friends—as your unfailing kindness encourages me to call you—I am a man who has no unsatisfied ambitions except to beat the enemy and to help you in any way I think right, and, therefore, I hope you will not suppose that in what I am going to say I am looking for votes or trying to glorify this party or that. But I do feel that I may draw your attention to the fact that several of these large matters, which a year ago I told you might be accomplished after war was over, have already been shaped and framed and presented to Parliament and the public.

For instance, you have the greatest scheme of improved education that has ever been attempted by a responsible government. This will soon be on the statute book. It involves a heavy cost upon the State, but I do not think we can maintain our position in the post-war world unless we are an exceptionally well-educated people and unless we can handle easily and with comprehension the problems and inventions of the new scientific age.

Then there is the very far-reaching policy of a National Health Service, which already has been laid before Parliament in outline and received with a considerable measure of acceptance.

Before this session is out we shall lay before you our proposals about the extensions of national insurance, upon which a vast amount of patient work has been done.

So here you have, or will have very shortly, three of the important measures, which I thought would be put off until after the war already, fashioned and proclaimed at a time when no one can tell when the war can end, and all this has been done without relaxing the war effort or causing any party strife to mar the national unity. But there are several other large problems upon which the Ministers and their assistants have toiled and wrought and which are far advanced.

And, indeed, if this process continues and war goes on long enough a greater part of my four-year plan of a year ago may very well be perfected and largely in operation before we reach a general election and give the people a chance to say what they think about it.

b. Now I must say that one might have expected His Majesty's Government would receive many compliments upon the remarkable progress they have made not only with the war but with the preparation for the social and domestic welfare at the armistice or peace.

Last Oct. 1 I thought the time had come to ask the King to appoint Lord Woolton to be Minister of Reconstruction, with a seat in the War Cabinet. His was a record which rightly commanded respect. However, there is a large number of respectable and even eminent people who are not at all burdened with responsibility who have a lot of leisure on their hands and who feel quite most sincerely that the best work they can do at this present time of hard effort and anxiety is to belabor the Government with criticism and condemn them as unprofitable servants because they are not, in the midst of this deadly struggle, ready at any moment to produce fool-proof solutions for the whole future world as between nation and nation, as between victors and vanquished, as between man and man, as between capital and labor, as between the state and individual, and so forth and so on.

The harshest language is used, and this national Government, which has led the nation and the empire and, as I hold, a large part of the world, out of mortal danger, through the dark valleys into which they had wandered, largely through their own folly, back onto the broad uplands where the stars of peace and freedom shine, is reviled as a set of dawdlers and muddlers unable to frame a policy or take a decision or make a plan and act upon it.

I know you will not forget that this Administration, formed in an hour of disaster by the leaders of the Conservative, Labor and Liberal parties in good faith and good will, has brought Britain out of the jaws of death. Back from the mouth of hell, while all the world wondered. I know you will not forget that.

There are two subjects of domestic policy which I mentioned last year on which we have not produced an account of our course of action. This first is housing. We set before ourselves the provision of homes for all who need them with priority for service men, as and when they come home from the war. Let me first lay down an absolute rule—nothing can or must be done in housing or rehousing which by weakening or clogging the war effort prolongs the war. Neither labor not material can be diverted in any way which hampers the vast operations which are in progress or impending.

Subject to that there are three ways in which the business of housing and rehousing the people should be attacked.

Let me tell you about it. Now I do not take the view myself that we were a nation of slum dwellers before the war. Nearly 5,000,000 new approved houses or dwellings were built out of about 11,000,000 in this small island between the two wars, and the British people as a whole were better housed than almost any people on the Continent of Europe, or, I will add, in many parts of the United States of America. But now about 1,000,000 homes have been destroyed or grievously damaged by the fire of the enemy. This offers a magnificent opportunity for rebuilding and replanning, and while we are at it we had better make a clean sweep of all those areas of which our civilization should be ashamed.

However, I have given my word that, so far as it may lie in my power, the soldiers, when they return from the war, and those who have been bombed out and made to double up with other families, shall be restored to homes of their own at the earliest possible moment.

The first attack must evidently be made upon houses which are damaged, but which can be reconditioned into proper dwellings. This must go forward during the war. And we hope to have broken the back of it during this year. It is a war measure, for our allies are here among us in vast numbers and we must do our best for them.

The second attack on the housing problem will be made by what are called the prefabricated, or emergency, houses. On this the Minister of Works, Lord Portal, is working wonders. I hope we may make up to half a million of these, and for this purpose not only plans but actual preparations are being made during the war on a nation-wide scale. Factories have been assigned, the necessary set-up is being made ready, materials are being ear-marked as far as possible, the most convenient sites will be chosen, the whole business is to be treated as a military evolution handled by the government with private industry harnessed to its service.

And I have every hope and a firm resolve that several hundred thousand of our young men will be able to marry several hundred thousand of our young women and make their own four-year plan.

Now what about these emergency houses? I have seen the full-sized model myself and steps are being taken to make sure that a good number of housewives have a chance of expressing their views about it. These houses will make a heavy demand upon the steel industry and will absorb in a great measure its overflow and expansion for war purposes. They are, in my opinion, far superior to the ordinary cottage as it exists today. Not only have they excellent baths, gas or electric kitchenettes and refrigerators, but their walls carry fitted furniture—chests of drawers, hanging cupboards and tables which today it would cost eighty pounds to buy. Moreover, for the rest of the furniture standard articles will be provided and mass produced so that no heavy capital charge will fall upon the young couples or others who may become tenants of the houses.

Owing to the methods of mass production which will be used, I am assured that these houses, including the £80 worth of fitted furniture, will be available at a very moderate rent. All these emergency houses will be publicly owned and it will not rest with any individual tenant to keep them in being after they have served their purpose of tiding over the return of the fighting men and after permanent dwellings are available. As much thought has been and will be put into this plan as was put into the invasion of Africa, though I readily admit that it does not bear comparison in scale with the kind of things we are working at now.

The swift production of these temporary houses is the only way in which the immediate needs of our people can be met in the four or five years that follow the war. In addition to this and to the reconditioning of the damaged dwellings, we have the program of permanent rebuilding which the Minister of Health, Mr. Willink, has recently outlined and by which we shall have two or three hundred thousand permanent houses built or building by the end of the first two years after the defeat of Germany.

Side by side with this comes the question of the employment of the building trade. We do not want a frantic splurge of building, to be followed by a sharp contraction of the trade. I have a sympathy with the building trade, and with the bricklayers. For they are apt to be the first to be taken for the wars and in time of peace they all know if they work at their job, that when it is finished they may have to look for another. If we are to secure the best results, it will be necessary that our twelve-year plan for the building trade on which Mr. Bevin [Minister of Labor and National Service] and Lord Portal have spent so much time—a plan which will guarantee steady employment for long periods and increased reward for increased efforts or superior skill we have —it will be necessary to see that that plan is carried out.

Then we are told by the busy wiseacres: How can you build houses without the land to put them on; when are you going to tell us your plans for this? But we have already declared in 1941 that all land needed for public purposes shall be taken at prices based on the standards of values of March 31, 1939. This was a formidable decision of state policy which selected property and land for a special, restricted imposition. Whereas stocks and shares and many classes of real property have gone up in value during the war, and when agricultural land, on account of the new proposals and new prospects opened to farmers, has also risen in value, the state has the power, which it will on no account surrender, to claim all land needed bona fid a for war industry or for public purposes at values fixed before wartime conditions supervened. There are certain hard cases which will best be adjusted by Parliamentary debate, but in the main you may be sure that ample land will be forthcoming when and where it is needed for all the houses, temporary or permanent, required to house our people far better than they have ever been housed before.

Nobody needs be deterred from planning for the future by the fear that they may not be able to obtain the necessary land. Legislation to enable the local authorities to secure any land required for the reconstruction of our towns has been promised and will be presented to Parliament this session. There are some comfortable people, of course, who want to put off everything until they have planned and got agreed to in every feature, a White Paper or a blueprint for the regeneration of the world, before, of course, asking the electors how they feel about it.

These people would rather postpone building the homes for the returning troops until they had planned out every acre in the country to make sure the landscape is not spoiled. In time of war we have to face immediate needs and stern realities, and it surely is better for us to do that than to do nothing whilst preparing to do everything.

Here is my difficulty. I put it frankly before you. I cannot take anything that will hinder the war. And no one-except the very clever ones—can tell when the war will end or whether it will end suddenly or peter out. Therefore, there must be an emergency plan, and that is what Ministers concerned have been working at for some time past. But in spite of this and of all I have said, I cannot guarantee that everything will be perfect or that if the end of the war came suddenly, as it might do, there will not be an interval when things will be pretty rough.

But it will not be a long interval, and it will be child's play compared to what we have already gone through. Nor need we be frightened about the scale of this task. It looks to me a small one—this housing—compared to some of those we have handled and are handling now.

The value of the land involved is between one-twentieth and one-thirtieth of the cost of the houses to be built upon it, and our population itself is unhappily about to enter upon a period of decline—numerical decline—which can only be checked by the most robust treatment of housing and of all its ancillaries.

There is one other question on which I should like to dwell tonight, but for a reason which I will mention later I only intend to utter a passing reassurance—I mean demobilization.

Now, I know about as much about this as most people, because I was Secretary of State for War and Air at the time of the great demobilization after the last war, when in about six months we brought home from abroad, released from military service and restored to their families nearly 3,000,000 men. Great plans had been prepared before the armistice by the planners to bring home all the key men first, and any soldier who could get a telegram from someone at home saying that he was wanted for a key job had priority over the men who had borne the burden and heat of the war. The troops did not think this was fair, and by the time I went to the War Office a convulsion of indiscipline shook the whole of our splendid army which had endured unmoved all danger, slaughter, privation.

I persuaded the Cabinet to reverse this foolish and inequitable plan and to substitute the simple rule—first out, first home—with the result that discipline was immediately restored and the process of demobilization went forward in a smooth and orderly fashion.

Now, my friend, Mr. Bevin, the Minister of Labor, for whose deep sagacity and knowledge of the wage-earning masses I have high admiration—Mr. Bevin has devised a very much less crude but equally fair and healthy scheme in which I have the greatest confidence, in which all concerned may have the greatest confidence.

Why am I not going to tell you all about it tonight? Or why will Mr. Bevin not tell you about it in the near future?

Here is the reason. This is not the time to talk about demobilization.

The hour of our greatest effort and action is approaching. We march with valiant Allies who count on us as we count on them. The flashing eyes of all our soldiers, sailors and airmen must be fixed upon the enemy on their front. The only homeward road for all of us lies through the arch of victory.

The magnificent armies of the United States are here, or are pouring in. Our own troops, the best trained and best equipped we have ever had, stand at their side in equal numbers and in true comradeship. Leaders are appointed in whom we all have faith. We shall require from our own people here, from Parliament, from the press, from all classes, the same cool, strong nerves, the same toughness of fiber which stood us in good stead in those days when we were all alone under the German blitz.

And here I must warn you, that in order to deceive and baffle the enemy as well as to exercise the forces, there will be many false alarms, many feints and many dress rehearsals. We may also ourselves be the object of new forms of attack from the enemy.

Britain can take it. She has never flinched or failed, and when the signal is given, the whole circle of avenging nations will hurl themselves upon the foe and batter out the life of the crudest tyranny which has ever sought to bar the progress of mankind.

The Battle of Sangshak ended with a Japanese tactical victory, but a British strategic one, as the British holding action had allowed them to send reinforcements to Kohima.

New Zealand Army sniper at Monte Cassino, March 26, 1944.

Reorganization of the 5th Army in Italy commences, with the French Corps and New Zealand Corps removed from the line in favor of units of the British 8th Army.

The fifteen captured OSS men of Operation Ginny II were summarily executed by the German under Hitler's Commando Order.

Large elements of the German 1st Panzer Army were cut off at Kamenets-Podolski

The USS Tullibee was sunk north of Palau due to a torpedo malfunction.  Only 1 of its 60 man crew would survive.  At the same time, Japanese observers again observe US naval forces and decide to disperse their own.

Combat damaged equipment being worked on, on Manus Island, March 26, 1944.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, March 25, 1944. Ioannina.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Sunday, February 27, 1944. The Khaibakh Massacre

Weather prevented over 700 Chechen villagers from Khaibakh from being convoyed in the Soviet mass deportation of Chechens, meaning they could not meet the absurdly short deadline set by Lavrentiy Beria so they were shot.  The order was given by Mikhail Gvishiani, an officer in the NKVD.

Beria, a loyal Stalin henchman, was a first class weirdo who was also a mass rapist, something his position allowed him to get away with.  He fell after Stalin's death, was tried, and executed for treason.

Gvishiani survived the fall of Stalin, but probably only because his son, Dzhermen Gvishiani, was married to the daughter of Communist Party Central Committee member Alexei Kosygin.

It was the start of National Negro Press Week.


The U.S. Office of Strategic Services commenced Operation Ginny I with the objective of blowing up Italian railway tunnels in Italy to cut German lines of communication.

The OSS team landed in the wrong location and had to abandon the mission.

Hitler ordered the Panzerfeldhaubitze 18M auf Geschützwagen III/IV (Sf) Hummel, Sd.Kfz. 165, "Hummel" renamed as he did not find the name Hummel, i.e. bumblebee to be an appropriate name.

You would think that Hitler would have had other things to worry about at this point.

The Grayback was sunk off of Okinawa by aircraft.

Thursday, October 5, 2023

Tuesday, October 5, 1943. OSS Coup Plots

For the first time since a failed attempt in 1943, U.S. aircraft bomb Wake Island.  Surface vessels also shelled the island.

In an example of the rogue nature of the OSS, Theodore Morde, of the Reader's Digest, at the request of OSS head William J. Donovan, met with the German Ambassador to Turkey Franz von Papen to encourage the latter to attempt a coup against Hitler.  Roosevelt was not informed of the effort.

The Washington Homestead Grays won the 1943 Negro World Series, beating the Birmingham Black Barons.

Thursday, August 24, 2023

Tuesday, August 24, 1943. Crossing the Dneiper

Heinrich Himmler was named Reichsminister of the Interior, replacing Wilhelm Frick.  Himmler was in the ascendant as Germany turned increasingly towards the most radical elements of its Nazi ideology.

The Quebec Conference closed.

Sarah Sundin notes:

Today in World War II History—August 24, 1943: Danish resistance group Holger Danske blows up Forum Hall in Copenhagen. Southeast Asia Command is authorized under Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten

She also notes that German foreign service agent Fritz Kolbe met with US OSS agent Allen Dulles in Switzerland for the first time, where he'd start to supply Dulles with diplomatic cables.

He survived the war and found that after it, he had a very hard time making a living as the Germans despised him for his actions.  This was a common German reaction post-war in that those who had acted on conscience in various ways against the Nazi regime were not admired in post-war West Germany.

He died in 1971 at age 70 in Switzerland from gall bladder cancer.

A new Southeast Asia Command was authorized with Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten as is Supreme Allied Commander.

By some accounts, the Battle of the Dnieper opened on this day in 1943 with a new Soviet offensive to regain the east bank of that river.


Monday, May 22, 2023

Saturday, May 22, 1943. Comintern dissolves.

The Comintern was dissolved in Moscow.

The Soviet Union had already betrayed the propaganda associated with the entity by being an ally of Nazi Germany until attacked by Nazi Germany.  The move was interpreted as a feeler towards the Western Allies, in that the Comintern had been dedicated to supplanting any government that wasn't a communist one.

Sarah Sundin's blog reports:

Today in World War II History—May 22, 1943: USS Bogue’s TBF aircraft damage German U-boat U-569, which is scuttled by her crew, the first victory for an Allied escort carrier unassisted by surface ships.

She also noted that Luftwaffe General Adolf Galland flew the ME262 on this day and was impressed by it, as anyone would have had to have been.


Long Range Desert Group, No. 2 Commando and the No. 43 (Royal Marine) Commando raided the Yugoslavian island of Mljet.   The raid was a substitute for ones early planned, and was supported by the OSS which had agents on the island.

Helen Taft, former First Lady, died at age 81.

Monday, June 13, 2022

Saturday, June 13, 1942. Spooks, Sabateurs, and Wartime Information.

Franklin Roosevelt created the Office of Strategic Services on this day in 1942.

OSS Insignia.

An office of the Department of Defense, the wartime agency was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency and was organized along military lines.

On the same day, Roosevelt also crated the Office of War Information.


It was the successor to several early wartime agencies.

Both agencies were created by the same Executive Order.

In recognition of the right of the American people and of all other peoples opposing the Axis aggressors to be truthfully informed about the common war effort, and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution, by the First War Powers Act, 1941, and as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, it is hereby ordered as follows:

1. The following agencies, powers, and duties are transferred and consolidated into an Office of War Information which is hereby established within the Office for Emergency Management in the Executive Office of the President:

(a) The Office of Facts and Figures and its powers and duties.

(b) The Office of Government Reports and its powers and duties.

(c) The powers and duties of the Coordinator of Information relating to the gathering of public information and its dissemination abroad, including, but not limited to, all powers and duties now assigned to the Foreign Information Service, Outpost, Publications, and Pictorial Branches of the Coordinator of Information.

(d) The powers and duties of the Division of Information of the Office for Emergency Management relating to the dissemination of general public information on the war effort, except as provided in paragraph 10.

2. At the head of the Office of War Information shall be a Director appointed by the President. The Director shall discharge and perform his functions and duties under the direction and supervision of the President. The Director may exercise his powers, authorities, and duties through such officials or agencies and in such manner as he may determine.

3, There is established within the Office of War Information a Committee on War Information Policy consisting of the Director as Chairman, representatives of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Joint Psychological Warfare Committee, and of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, and such other members as the Director, with the approval of the President, may determine. The Committee on War Information Policy shall formulate basic policies and plans on war information, and shall advise with respect to the development of coordinated war information programs.

4. Consistent with the war information policies of the President and with the foreign policy of the United States, and after consultation with the Committee on War Information Policy, the Director shall perform the following functions and duties:

(a) Formulate and carry out, through the use of press, radio, motion picture, and other facilities, information programs designed to facilitate the development of an informed and intelligent understanding, at home and abroad, of the status and progress of the war effort and of the war policies, activities, and aims of the Government.

(b) Coordinate the war informational activities of all Federal departments and agencies for the purpose of assuring an accurate and consistent flow of war information to the public and the world at large.

(c) Obtain, study, and analyze information concerning the war effort and advise the agencies concerned with the dissemination of such information as to the most appropriate and effective means of keeping the public adequately and accurately informed.

(d) Review, clear, and approve all proposed radio and motion picture programs sponsored by Federal departments and agencies; and serve as the central point of clearance and contact for the radio broadcasting and motion-picture industries, respectively, in their relationships with Federal departments and agencies concerning such Government programs.

(e) Maintain liaison with the information agencies of the United Nations for the purpose of relating the Government's informational programs and facilities to those of such Nations.

(f) Perform such other functions and duties relating to war information as the President may from time to time determine.

5. The Director is authorized to issue such directives concerning war information as he may deem necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of this Order, and such directives shall be binding upon the several Federal departments and agencies. He may establish by regulation the types and classes of informational programs and releases which shall require clearance and approval by his office prior to dissemination. The Director may require the curtailment or elimination of any Federal information service, program, or release which he deems to be wasteful or not directly related to the prosecution of the war effort.

6. The authority, functions, and duties of the Director shall not extend to the Western Hemisphere exclusive of the United States and Canada.

7. The formulation and carrying out of informational programs relating exclusively to the authorized activities of the several departments and agencies of the Government shall remain with such departments and agencies, but such informational programs shall conform to the policies formulated or approved by the Office of War Information. The several departments and agencies of the Government shall make available to the Director, upon his request, such information and data as may be necessary to the performance of his functions and duties.

8. The Director of the Office of War Information and the Director of Censorship shall collaborate in the performance of their respective functions for the purpose of facilitating the prompt and full dissemination of all available information which will not give aid to the enemy.

9. The Director of the Office of War Information and the Defense Communications Board shall collaborate in the performance of their respective functions for the purpose of facilitating the broadcast of war information to the peoples abroad.

10. The functions of the Division of Information of the Office for Emergency Management with respect to the provision of press and publication services relating to the specific activities of the constituent agencies of the Office for Emergency Management are transferred to those constituent agencies respectively, and the Division of Information is accordingly abolished.

11. Within the limits of such funds as may be made available to the Office of War Information, the Director may employ necessary personnel and make provision for the necessary supplies, facilities, and services. He may provide for the internal management and organization of the Office of War Information in such manner as he may determine.

12. All records, contracts, and property (including office equipment) of the several agencies and all records, contracts, and property used primarily in the administration of any powers and duties transferred or consolidated by this Order, and all personnel used in the administration of such agencies, powers, and duties (including officers whose chief duties relate to such administration) are transferred to the Office of War Information, for use in the administration of the agencies, powers, and duties transferred or consolidated by this Order; provided, that any personnel transferred to the Office of War Information by this Order, found by the Director of the Office of War Information to be in excess of the personnel necessary for the administration of the powers and duties transferred to the Office of War Information, shall be retransfered under existing procedure to other positions in the Government service, or separated from the service.

13. So much of the unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, or other funds available for the use of any agency in the exercise of any power or duty transferred or consolidated by this Order or for the use of the head of any agency in the exercise of any power or duty so transferred or consolidated, as the Director of the Bureau of the Budget with the approval of the President shall determine, shall be transferred to the Office of War Information, for use in connection with the exercise of powers or duties so transferred or consolidated. In determining the amount to be transferred, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget may include an amount to provide for the liquidation of obligations incurred against such appropriations, allocations, or other funds prior to the transfer or consolidation.

Four German agents landed on Long Island, dispatched from a German submarine as part of Operation Pastorius. Their mission would rapidly fail and be detected, although not as rapidly as it could have been. They were detained by the Coast Guard, but released.

Two of the would be spies defected, that being put in place by George Dasch who recruited Ernst Burger to his cause.  Dasch had originally intended to become a Catholic Priest, but had been expelled from the seminary at age 14.  He then joined the Imperial German Army and served in it in the waning years of World War One.  He entered the U.S. illegally in 1923 and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1927.  He reentered the Army in 1936.

Married twice in the United States, without the benefit of divorce, he abandoned his family and returned to Germany in 1938.  For his role in exposing the plot, FBI Director Hoover promised him a pardon but it was never delivered.  He and Burger were returned to Germany in 1948, and he never received permission to return.

Burger was younger and has also lived in the United States, where he'd been a member of the National Guard.  He was a member of the Nazi Party since age 17 and had been an aide-de-camp to Ernst Roehm of the SA.  Following that he wrote an article critical of the Gestapo which had landed him in a concentration camp for over a year.

All the participants of Operation Pastorius were sentenced to death following a trial, including Dasch and Burger, but the latter two had their sentences reduced to lengthy prison sentences.  President Truman cut those short and had them deported back to Germany, as noted.  The sentences have always been controversial, and frankly neither Dasch or Burger, who had exposed their confederates, were really treated right by the United States government.

On what came to be known as Black Saturday, British Commonwealth forces started the evacuation of the Gazala Line, following a successful sandstorm attack by the German 21st Panzer Division.

The Japanese conducted an aircraft carrier launched airraid on Darwin, Australia.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Monday, February 2, 1942. Things Chinese

Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to loan $500,000,000 to Nationalist China.

US poster for China relief.  This is obviously an idealized poster, but its interesting in that the family is shown in typical Chinese dress for the time, with the Nationalist soldier pretty accurately shown with a export pattern contract M98 Mauser and attired in German inspired clothing, including the feldmutze adopted by the Nationalist Chinese Army.

This doesn't seem surprising now, but in retrospect, Nationalist China's road to being an ally of the United States was a circuitous one.  The Nationalist had been a Soviet client since 1921 and remained one even after the Communist were removed from the Kuomintang, the event that brought about the Chinese Civil War.  Indeed, while the Soviets also supported the Chinese Communist Party, it operated to force the CCP to make accommodations to the Kuomintang even while the two were fighting against each other.  Moscow's hand was so heavy that it can be argued that Stalin essentially prevented a Communist takeover of China before 1949 through its actions.  A pre-war effort by the Japanese to secure a treaty with the USSR that went beyond being a mere non-aggression pact had included, as part of its conditions, that the Soviets quit supplying the Nationalist, which the Soviets refused.

Soviet volunteer aviators with the Nationalist Chinese.  Soviet aircrews fought with the Nationalist until the German invasion of the USSR, making their volunteer effort earlier than the American one.

Indeed, the Soviets not only supplied aid and material to the Chinese Nationalist, they supplied a group of volunteer aviators.  The US AVG came about only after the Soviet effort concluded.  The Soviets, therefore, aided the Nationalist in real terms longer, and in some ways, more concretely, than the US did, right up until the late 1930s when the US became very interested in Japanese aggression in China.

Soviet I-16 fighter in Nationalist Chinese use.  This aircraft was a popular fighter of the 1930s and saw service early in World War Two, by which time it was obsolete.

At the same time, Nationalist China received significant support from Nazi Germany as well.


Poster symbolizing German and Nationalist Chinese military cooperation, and also demonstrating the very close appearance of their respective uniforms.  The German pattern helmets used by the Chinese were of the late M35 pattern, making them a more modern pattern, for example, than that usually shown worn by the Finns, who retained the old M16s until later patterns were supplied to them during World War Two.

German aid to the Chinese Nationalist military dated back to Weimar Germany, and China had been one of the outlet nations which allowed the Weimar government to basically bypass restrictions on the size of the German officer corps. This continued on into the 1930s with it going so far as to see one of Chiang Kai Shek's children, an adopted son, receive German military training, while another saw an education in the USSR, showing the nature of the relationship between the two countries and the Nationalist.

Chiang Wei-kuo.

The Germans pulled towards the Japanese in the late 1930s, although that relationship was not anywhere near as seamless or trusting as sometimes supposed, and was more than a little cynical on the German side (it was much less cynical on the Japanese side).  As this occurred the Germans began to slowly abandon the Chinese, although not before the Chinese Nationalist Army was essentially equipped in a fashion that distantly mirrored the German Army's to a significant extent.  The Nationalist Chinese fought the Second World War principally armed with German infantry weapons, and they even acquired a handful of tanks from the Germans before Japanese protests caused the supply of such things to cease.

Chinese soldier guarding American P-40s.  He's armed with a contract German M98 Mauser and  his uniform, sans footgear, is basically German in pattern.

The United States, in contrast, had never actually been a major military supplier to anyone prior to World War Two and only stepped into that role with China very late, indeed basically at the same time it started to supply the British in the Second World War. 

It should be noted that in spite of all of this aid, from all of these various sources, and in spite of the fact that the Nationalist Chinese fought much better than they have been credited as doing, massive corruption existed within the Nationalist Chinese ranks which enormously depleted their effectiveness.  Vast amounts of aid were wasted or subject to corrupt diversion and the plight of the Chinese enlisted man a bad one, which accounted for a massive desertion rate.

The US can be regarded as having been naive throughout this period in regard to China in every fashion.  The Nationalist Chinese fought much harder than they're credited with against the Japanese, as noted, but the Nationalist were not in a position to expel them and their own internal corruption hindered their effectiveness.  Chiang clashed with his American advisor's views, although he was always extremely polite to them even though he knew that some, such as Gen. Stilwell, held him in contempt.  The long history of his political movement demonstrates that it was one of complicated political beliefs which in fact included some sympathy to the very hard left, but the government was not a democratic one during Chiang's control of it, something he attributed to wartime and civil war conditions.


Wartime pro British Nationalist card.

During the war the US military mission to China would become significant, but wartime conditions also meant that the OSS mission was more than a little sympathetic to the Chinese Communists and, in fact, included members who were Communist themselves.  The rapid collapse of the Chinese Nationalist, who had held out throughout the 1930s, raised questions that have still never really been fully answered about how that came about, but it is clear that the Truman administration simply had no real sympathy for the Nationalist and had grown tired of them.  Here too, the US failed to appreciate China and where things were heading, once the Nationalist had lost the favor of their final patron, the United States.  Chiang, for his part, partially attributed his 1949 defeat to the corruption that has always existed in his movement, and he diligently worked to eliminate it once he was exiled to Taiwan.

Oddly, Chiang Kai Shek has undergone a bit of a rehabilitation in Communist China in recent years, with some scholarly articles reassessing his leadership favorably.  It's hard to know what to make of this.

On this same day, and on the same topic, more or less, Joseph Stilwell was designated Chief of Staff to Supreme Commander, China Theatre, which meant he was Chief of Staff to Chiang.


Stilwell didn't get along with Chiang and was outraged by Chinese corruption and military inefficiency, both of which were very real as noted.  He became more vociferous about his views as the war went on, and was ultimately partially recalled because of this.  He referred to Chiang as peanut, and his views might be best illustrated, in part, by this poem he authored.
I have waited long for vengeance,
At last I've had my chance.
I've looked the Peanut in the eye
And kicked him in the pants.


The old harpoon was ready
With aim and timing true,
I sank it to the handle,
And stung him through and through.

The little bastard shivered,
And lost the power of speech.
His face turned green and quivered
As he struggled not to screech.

For all my weary battles,
For all my hours of woe,
At last I've had my innings
And laid the Peanut low.

I know I've still to suffer,
And run a weary race,
But oh! the blessed pleasure!
I've wrecked the Peanut's face.

Also on this day, as Sarah Sundin's blog reports:
February 2, 1942: : US 808th Engineer Aviation Battalion arrives in Melbourne to build airfields near Darwin, Australia. Allied ships begin withdrawal from Singapore to East Indies.
At this time, there was a real fear that the Japanese would land on Australia.

On the Eastern Front, the Germans were forced to supply the troops surrounded at Kholm by air.

Life Magazine featured a P-47 on its cover, a stunning thing to realize in that in 1942 the common American fighter was the over matched P-40.  The P-47 would go on to be one of the great convoy escort aircraft of the war and obtain a reputation as a terrific ground support aircraft.  The plane had made its first flight in 1941 and had not yet gone into service, but the fact that it was at this stage meant that the US had already leaped an entire aircraft generation ahead of any other combatant in the war.

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Friday July 11, 1941. Hitler plans, Donovan rises.

On this day in 1941, Adolph Hitler his directive No. 32.  The directive started off with an assumption that would prove to be rather inaccurate, that being "the destruction of the Soviet Armed Forces".  Indeed, its well worth reading, simply for its insights into the state of affairs at the time and the level of German miscalculation, misassumption, and hubris.

The directive (courtesy of Wikipedia Commons) read:

The Fuehrer and Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces

OKW/WFSt./Abt.L(I Op.) Nr. 44886/41 gK Chefsache II. Ang.
SECRET The Fuehrer's Headquarters 
11 June 41
(only through officer)
13 copies
Directive Nr. 32Preparations for the Time After Barbarossa
A. After the destruction of the Soviet Armed Forces, Germany and Italy will be military masters of the European Continent—with the temporary exception of the Iberian Peninsula. No serious threat to Europe by land will then remain. The defense of this area, and foreseeable future offensive action, will require considerably smaller military forces than have been needed hitherto.
The main efforts of the armaments industry can be diverted to the Navy and Air Force.
Closer co-operation between Germany and France should and will tie down additional English forces, will eliminate the threat from the rear in the North African theatre of war, will further restrict the movements of the British Fleet in the Western Mediterranean and will protect the south-western flank of the
European theatre, including the Atlantic seaboard of North and West Africa, from Anglo-Saxon attack.
In the near future Spain will have to face the question whether she is prepared to co-operate in driving the British from Gibraltar or not.
The possibility of exerting strong pressure on Turkey and Iran improves the prospect of making direct or indirect use of these countries in the struggle against England.
B. This situation, which will be created by the victorious conclusion of the campaign in the East, can confront the Armed Forces with the following strategic tasks for the late autumn of 1941 and the winter of 1941-42:
1. The newly conquered territories in the East must be organized, made secure and, in full co-operation with the Armed Forces, exploited economically.
The strength of the security forces required in Russia can only be forecast with certainty at a later date. In all probability, however, about sixty divisions and one Air Fleet will be sufficient, with allied and friendly forces, for our further duties in the East.
2. The struggle against the British positions in the Mediterranean and in Western Asia will be continued by converging attacks launched from Libya through Egypt, from Bulgaria through Turkey, and in certain circumstances also from Transcaucasia through Iran.
(a) In North Africa it is important that Tobruk should be eliminated and conditions thereby established for the continuation of the German-Italian attack on the Suez Canal. This attack should be planned for about November on the understanding that the German Africa Corps will be by then brought to the highest possible efficiency in personnel and equipment and with adequate reserves of all kinds under its own hand (by the conversion of 5th Light Division into a full armored division), so that it is not necessary to move further large German formations to North Africa.
The preparations for the attack require that the tempo of transport be quickened by all means available, including the employment of ports in French North Africa and, when possible, the new sea route from Southern Greece.
It will be the duty of the Navy, in co-operation with the Italian Navy, to arrange for the necessary tonnage by chartering French and neutral shipping.
The possibility of moving German motor torpedo boats to the Mediterranean will be examined.
The Italian Navy will be afforded all support in improving unloading facilities in North African ports.
Commander-in-Chief Air Force will transfer to the Africa Corps sufficient air units and anti-aircraft artillery for the operation, as these become superfluous in the East. He will also reinforce Italian protection of seaborne convoys by the use of German air formations.
In order to co-ordinate the handling of transport, the Supply and Transport Office of the Armed Forces Overseas [Heimatstab Ubersee] has been established, which will work on the lines laid down by the High Command of the Armed Forces, in co-operation with the German General at Italian Armed Forces Headquarters, and with Commander Armed Forces South-east.
(b) In view of the expected British reinforcement of the Near and Middle East, especially for the defense of the Suez Canal, a German operation from Bulgaria through Turkey will be planned, with the aim of attacking the British position on the Suez Canal from the East also.
To this end plans must be made to assemble in Bulgaria as soon as possible sufficient forces to render Turkey politically amenable or to overpower her resistance.
(c) If the collapse of the Soviet Union has created the necessary conditions, preparations will be made for the dispatch of a motorized expeditionary force from Transcaucasia against Iraq, in conjunction with operations mentioned in paragraph (b) above.
(d) Exploitation of the Arab Freedom Movement. The situation of the English in the Middle East will be rendered more precarious, in the event of major German operations, if more British forces are tied down at the right moment by civil commotion or revolt. All military, political, and propaganda measures to this end must be closely coordinated during the preparatory period. As central agency abroad I nominate Special Staff F, which is to take part in all plans and actions in the Arab area, whose headquarters are to be in the area of the Commander Armed Forces South-east. The most competent available experts and agents will be made available to it.
The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces will specify the duties of Special Staff F, in agreement with the Foreign Minister where political questions are involved.
3. Closing of the Western Entrance to the Mediterranean by the elimination of Gibraltar:
Preparations for 'Undertaking Felix', already planned, will be resumed to the fullest extent even during the course of operations in the East. It may be assumed that unoccupied French territory may also be used, if not for German troop movements, then at least for the movement of supplies. The co-operation of French naval and air forces is also within the bounds of possibility.
After the capture of Gibraltar only such forces will be moved to Spanish Morocco as are necessary to protect the Straits.
The defense of the seaboard of North and West Africa, the elimination of English possessions in West Africa, and the recovery of the areas controlled by de Gaulle, will be the tasks of the French, who will be granted such reinforcements as the situation requires. The use of West African bases by the Navy and Air Force, and possibly also the occupation of the Atlantic Islands, will be facilitated by our control of the Straits.
4. In addition to these contemplated operations against the British position in the Mediterranean, the 'Siege of England' must be resumed with the utmost intensity by the Navy and Air Force after the conclusion of the campaign in the East.
All weapons and equipment required for this purpose will be given priority in the general armaments programme. At the same time German Air Defenses will be strengthened to the maximum. Preparations for the invasion of England will serve the double purpose of tying down English forces at home and of bringing about a final English collapse through a landing in England.
C. The time at which the operations planned in the Mediterranean and the Near East can be undertaken cannot yet be foreseen. The strongest operational effect would be achieved by a simultaneous attack on Gibraltar, Egypt, and Palestine.
Whether this will, in fact, be possible depends upon a number of factors which cannot, at the moment, be foreseen, but chiefly on the power of the Air Force to provide the forces necessary for the simultaneous support of these three operations.
D. I request Commanders-in-Chief to begin the planning and organization of these operations as outlined above and to keep me informed of the results so that I may issue final directives before the campaign in the East is over.
The Fuehrer and Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces
OKW/WFSt./Abt.L(II)Org. Nr. 441219/41 g. Kdos. Chefs
SECRETThe Fuehrer's Headquarters
14 July 41
(only through officer)
13 copies
Directive Nr. 32bPersonnel and Equipment
On the basis of my intentions for the future prosecution of the war, as stated in Directive 32, I issue the following general instructions concerning personnel and equipment :
1. General:
Our military mastery of the European continent after the overthrow of Russia will make it possible considerably to reduce the strength of the Army. Within the limits of this reduced Army, the relative strength of the armored forces will be greatly increased.
The manning and equipment of the Navy will be limited to what is essential for the direct prosecution of the war against England and, should the occasion arise, against America.
The main effort of equipment will be devoted to the Air Force, which will be greatly strengthened.
2. Manpower:
The future strength of the Army will be laid down by me, after receiving proposals from Commander-in-Chief Army.
The Replacement Army will be reduced to conform with the diminished strength of the Army.
The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces will decide, in accordance with my directives, on the employment of the manpower which will become available for the Armed Forces as a whole and for the armaments industry.
The Class of 1922 will be called up at the latest possible date, and will be distributed by the High Command of the Armed Forces in accordance with the future tasks of the various branches of the Armed Forces.
3. Arms and Equipment:
(a) The Armed Forces as a whole.
The arming and equipment of troops will be reduced to the requirements of the situation in the field, without reference to existing establishment scales.
All formations not intended for actual combat (security, guard, construction, and similar units) will be armed basically with captured weapons and second line equipment.
All requests for 'general Armed Forces equipment' will be immediately reduced or rejected in relation to available supplies, need, and wear and tear. Continued manufacture of such weapons as can be proved to be necessary will be decided in agreement with the Minister for Armaments and Munitions.
Plant (buildings and machine tools) already in use will not be expanded unless it can be shown that existing equipment cannot be put to full use by the introduction of shift working.
Work on all such permanent buildings for industry and the Armed Forces as are intended for use in peace-time, rather than for the immediate prosecution of the war and for the production of arms, will be halted. Construction directly necessary for the conduct of the war and for armaments will remain subject to the regulations of the General Plenipotentiary for Building. Buildings erected by civilian contractors will be limited by him to such as are most essential to the war effort.
Contracts of all kinds which do not comply with these principles will be immediately withdrawn.
The manpower, raw materials, and plant released by these measures will be made available for the main tasks of equipment and placed, as soon as possible, at the disposal of the Minister of Armaments and Munitions for use elsewhere.
(b) Army:
The extension of arms and equipment and the production of new weapons, munitions, and equipment will be related, with immediate effect, to the smaller forces which are contemplated for the future. Where orders have been placed for more than six months ahead all contracts beyond that period will be cancelled. Current deliveries will only continue if their immediate cancellation would be uneconomic.
The following are exceptions to these limitations:
The tank programme for the motorized forces (which are to be considerably reinforced) including the provision of special weapons and tanks of the heaviest type.
The new programme for heavy anti-tank guns, including their tractors and ammunition.
The programme for additional equipment for expeditionary forces, which will include four further armored divisions for employment in the tropics, drawn from the overall strength of the armored forces.
Preparations for the manufacture of equipment unrelated to these programmes will be halted.
The Army's programme for anti-aircraft guns is to be coordinated with that of the Air Force, and represents a single unified scheme from the manufacturing point of view. All available plant will be fully employed in order to achieve the delivery targets which I have laid down.
(c) Navy:
The Navy will continue its submarine programme. Construction will be limited to what is directly connected with this programme. Expansion of the armaments programme over and above this is to be stopped.
(d) Air Force:
The overall armaments programme will concentrate on carrying out the expanded 'Air Armaments programme' which I have approved. Its realization up to the spring of 1942 is of decisive importance for the whole war effort. For this purpose all available manpower from the Armed Forces and industry will be employed. The allocation of aluminum to the Air Force will be increased as far as possible.
The speed of the programme, and the extent to which it can be fulfilled, will be linked to the increased production of light metals and mineral oil.
4. The programme for powder and explosives will concentrate upon the requirements of the Air Force (bombs and anti-aircraft ammunition) at the expense of the requirements of the Army. Buildings will be restricted to the barest essentials and confined to the simplest type of construction.
Production of explosives will be limited to the existing basis.
5. It is particularly important to ensure supplies of raw materials and mineral oil. Coal production and the extension of the light metal, artificial rubber, substitute materials, and liquid fuel industries will be supported by the Armed Forces in every way, particularly by the release of miners and specialist workers. The construction of the necessary plans for the extended air armaments industry will be developed simultaneously.
6. The allocation of manpower, raw materials, and plant will be made in accordance with these principles.
7. The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces will issue the necessary orders for the Armed Forces, and the Minister for Armaments and Munitions for his sector, in mutual agreement.

In retrospect, this directive was delusional. 

The Office of Coordinator of Information, the predecessor of the Office of Strategic Services, the American variant of the SOE, and also the predecessor of the Office of War Information, was formed.  William "Wild Bill" Donovan, a lawyer from New York, was put at its head.  He'd latter be the head of the OSS.

Gen. "Wild Bill" Donovan.

Donovan and the OSS remain controversial.  Heroic in the extreme, the veteran of World War One is the only person to have received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Security Medal.

A Columbian Law School graduate, Donovan was a practicing lawyer in New York but was also larger than life.  He served as a National Guard cavalryman on the border during the Punitive Expedition and then went on to serve with the "Fighting 69th" of the New York National Guard during World War One.  At that time his endurance, surpassing that of younger men, earned him the nickname "Wild Bill".

Donovan during World War One.

He returned to private practice after the Great War, but also served as a U.S. Attorney at the same time.  As if that wouldn't keep a person busy enough, he was involved in espionage efforts against the Japanese and Communism.

The latter is a bit ironic as during his stint as head of the OSS during World War Two he turned a blind eye to extreme leftward leanings of some of the OSS's recruits.  Indeed, he was annoyed to have to look into the same, but the simple fact of the matter is that Soviet intelligence had in fact penetrated the OSS.  The OSS, for that matter, was mixed in terms of its real effectiveness, something its successor, the Central Intelligence Agency, was well aware of and which explained its distancing itself from the OSS upon its formation.